Airport Infrastructure Issues Could Stall Tourism Rebound

While stakeholders in Belize are optimistic that the imminent end to the U.S. federal government shutdown will result in an increase in demand for destination Belize, air traffic control shortages and equipment failures at major airports have plagued the system for months. It is a problem that predates the federal shutdown and one which experts warn will linger even after all government services resume.

 

Reynaldo Malik Jr., President, Belize Hotel Association

“The issues with air traffic controllers existed before the lockdown. It has been exacerbated by the lockdown. But remember that for the past five, six months there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers. There’s been issues with air traffic equipment in the U.S. so those problems predated the lockdown. I wanna be cautious there because I don’t want us to think that an end to the federal government lockdown will immediately cause the issues that have been caused by the airline industry. That will immediately cause the airline industry to go back to full operations, right? I don’t think so. I think that there’ll be some lingering effects from that because if you use an example like COVID for instance, in tourism in Belize, a lot of people left the tourism industry in Belize never came back. Right, and you have to look at it that there are people that are going to leave their jobs as air traffic controllers in this period of time and probably will not come back. Reduction by ten percent in flights, maybe they’re going to reduce the regional legs and not the international legs. You never know how it’s going to play out, right? So, we’ll have to wait till tomorrow and see how that goes. But again, I don’t want anyone to think that an end to the federal lockout will immediately also end the FAA plans to reduce flights. That is going to start tomorrow. I think that will linger on for a little bit.”

 

The Belize Tourism Board has been in communication with the airlines to assess how the FAA cuts will impact flights to Belize. B.T.B. Director Evan Tillett says, “We have seen correspondences from United Airlines stating that international flights will not be affected so that is a positive sign.